‘Migration cannot end by beating up people’

Panaji, Oct 30 (IANS) Migration is a global reality which needs to be handled with maturity and not by beating up migrants, state commissioner for Non-Resident Indian (NRI) Affairs Eduardo Faleiro said. Pressing for an academic approach to the issue of migration within the country and abroad, Faleiro also took a dig at Raj Thackeray’s Maharashra Navanirman Sena (MNS) for its migrant-oriented partisan politics.

“The migrant issue is a problem in Mumbai. But the best way out of it is not to beat up people. No one has the right to beat migrants, because they also benefit the host city,” Faleiro told reporters Friday.

Faleiro was pushing for a centre of diaspora studies in Goa, a state which has seen out-migration to Britain, Africa and especially to the Gulf countries.

“Goa was the second state in the country after Kerala to carry out a scientific study on migration. But it has to be a continuous process,” Faleiro said.

The former union minister of state for external affairs said he had discussed the issue of setting up a centre of diaspora studies in Goa, with the union Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal.

“The Indian diaspora has significant communities worldwide, but none of our universities have facilities for focused research or teaching in this area,” Faleiro said.

“Goa is an ideal location since over centuries a major chunk of our population migrated to other parts of India and abroad, also there in-migration into our state from other parts of the country,” he said.

To back up his argument, Faleiro said the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in its 2009 human development report has identified migration as a prominent feature of domestic and international debate.

The veteran Congressman also called for a head count of the Goan and Indian diaspora abroad, stating that without a system in place, it was virtually impossible to figure out how many Indians had migrated abroad for sake of employment.